Bot Laboratory partners with Drawn to 3D print Kickstarter rewards for U.S. supporters

3D printed planters

Large planters 3D printed by Bot Laboratory out of white ABS plastic for Nicole Caldwell Photography. Printed on the Euclid Robot 3D printer; the largest planter stands over 42 inches tall (1 meter) and took 4 hours to print. Plants from Environments by Miko.

3D printed snap together architecture

This prototype building system was developed by Zachary Schoch with support from Eugene Lee and was Exhibited at 3D PrinterWorld 2015 in Burbank California. It fit into one car and took about 10 minutes to setup including unloading. Standing over 10 feet tall it was printed at full scale utilizing the Euclid robot 3d printer.

These three 3D printed pieces took a total of less than 18 hours to print, and use high strength ABS plastic.

Example of a small but full scale structure that is readily printable with the S-Wall system. Rendering by Eugene Lee

Modular 3D printed full scale building system featuring large high strength ABS components that structurally snap together allowing for easy transport and assembly by hand. Total print time for these three pieces was less than 18 hours. Assistance with printing and 3d modeling for s-wall from Eugene Lee.

Because these components are built from such high performance material they should be constructible by hand, or for larger and more structurally elements only minimal equipment would be required. This property allows for investment in higher performance printing facilities due to the low cost of transportation to the building site.

With this construction system there is no fundamental difference between the traditionally disparate elements of floor/wall/roof. In this instance the floor literally becomes the wall, and the wall becomes the roof/ceiling.

Because the s-wall system is hollow, mechanical systems can be integrated directly into it. Piping for liquids could be installed readily after assembly using flexible tubing, or pipes could be printed integral to the s-wall. Ventilation ducts would also be printed integral to the unit with vents being able to be printed simultaneously as well, in the floors, wall or roof depending on the need.

Detail view of s-wall connection. This detail was designed to have a tension element on the outside of the building (hook and matching receptacle left center) and a compression element on the inside. The joint is simply disconnected by reversing the load path.

This detail shows the webbing that is integrally printed to structurally connect the inside and outside skins, acting in a similar manner as the diagonals in a truss.

Because the tension element (outer seam) is placed below the compression element (inner seam) the snap connection should prevent any water intrusion. Additionally a sealing gasket could be integrated into the connection to prevent vapor and air intrusion.

By curving the web connection in elevation and rotating it along its length the web is acting in multiple planes simultaneously - greatly increasing it rigidity while minimizing the use of material and reducing the print time.

Bot Lab shows the S-wall at 3D Printer World Burbank 2015

This was a great event that was not as overwhelming as most conventions tend to be.

We complete the S-wall just in time to show it here and there was a wonderful reception.

3D printed lamp#002

Another 3d printed lamp by Bot Laboratory, this lamp is actually a combination of two prints. The first component was printed out of clear polystyrene and has a base diameter of 16" and a height of 20". The second component was printed out of abs and has a base diameter of 10" and a height of 12". The smaller simply fits perfectly into the larger and helps to soften and diffuse the light.

3D printed wall #001

6' 4" (1.9 meter) 3D printed wall that I created for Maker faire 2014. Printed on the Euclid Robot 3D printer using both black and clear ABS plastic it is extremely strong with an approximately 1/4" (6.35mm) print thickness. The wall is two 5 hour prints making for 10 hours of total print time. And yes, that is fast, well compared to most printers. Special thanks to Jordan Squires for all of his help.

bot laboratory at bay area maker fair; may 17-18 2014

Zachary Schoch and The Bot Laboratory will have a booth at the 2014 bay area maker fair. Come check out some really big 3D prints and see if you can win the giant bunny by breaking a lowly piece of 3D printed plastic.

Update: It went amazingly well. Everyone loved the giant 3D printed wall that only took 10 hours of print time.

giant 3D printed bunny

This (Stanford) bunny was printed using the Euclid Robot 3D printer utilizing the Ron 2.1 extruder. Printed in ABS plastic with one wall (single thickness shell) and no infill it took about 2.5 hours to complete.

Just to be clear, that’s not photoshop trickery, it really is a person walking behind the bunny in the first photo.

3D printed lamp #001

The first 5 people that sign up for my Making things that Make workshop on the Blindspot Initiative Kickstarter campaign will get to design and print their own lamp here at the bot lab using the Euclid 3d printer. It will be very hands on so come prepared to learn by doing. (If you are in the second group of 5 it will be just as hands on but you might have to settle for the lamp pictured here, either way everyone gets a lamp; bulb and socket included )

Printed in clear polystyrene plastic, very lightweight and amazingly clear. As good as this one turned out, all I can think about is experimenting more. The light inside is a full size LED bulb in a simple corded fixture from your fav flat pack store.

3D printed vase #001

The Euclid robot and Ron 2.0 make their first 3D printed object. This was just a simple test print on the Euclid robot now that it is fully up and running, but it came out better than I was expecting. This whole layer based printing business is pretty easy. The details: It is printed with ABS plastic,size is 12 inches tall and 5x5 inches in plan. Because Ron 2.0 is such a huge plastic extruder the ‘line weight’ is very wide; that coupled with the speed that the robot was moving makes for a very thick walled structure. So much so that I can stand on this thing, both upright and on its side. Total print time was about an hour (60 minutes). Which in the world of 3D printing is fast. I will do my best to make the next one in 30 minutes. Time is money after all. The path planning was done with a custom grasshopper script, and the Euclid robot is controlled via and Arduino board.